Monday, 17 September 2012

Prison Islands

Another IM conversation with 'the other', that brings up some points I will write more about in the future.The other: also I was reading
your blog and had a thought

The other: here let me pull
up the bit that made me think

The other: it was when you
were talking about the prison breakThe other: "The inmates
managed to escape the prison, but not the Island, demonstrating the reason for
the institution's siting."The artist: There's more to
mention on thatThe artist: The prison
developed from a military barracksThe artist: back during the
napoleonic warsThe other: aye?The artist: when soldiering
wasn't exactly voluntaryThe other: aahThe artist: They bought them
over here for what they'd call 'militarisation' these daysThe other: ahThe other:anyway you mention
Discipline and Punish (which I haven't read) and the panopticon as a metaphor
for social controlThe artist: AyeThe other: I'm not sure what
it is I'm getting atThe other: essentially, due
to its geographic isolation do you think there's something uhThe artist: I'm not toeing the
full line from Foucault. As I try to get across, Foucault developed his
panopticism metaphor before modern mass surveillance was a reality, and his
ideas are actually a little more esoteticThe other: prison culturey
about living on an Island?

The artist: Hmn

The other: because there's a
bit in your introduction about the homesicknessThe other:when you moved off
the islandThe other: and it made me
think about the "can't make it on the outside" aspect of prisons

The other: and how islands
are natural locations for prisons

The artist: Oh aye

The artist:There's a bit that
I've been trying to think how to tackle for ages

The artist:Like, one of the
initial ideas

The artist: About how being
bought up on an island affects the individual psychologically

The artist: You're always aware
of limits

The artist:Like, you can't
just potentially step beyond a certain point and expand your
horizons

The artist: it takes a very
definite logistical leap

The other: aye

The artist: On the positive
side of that, you have the idea that your whole environment is in some way
knowable

The artist: Like, there's a
feeling of safety, on an island, that's maybe what makes the place appeal to
retirees, especially of the small c middle england varietyThe artist: Like, you always
know what's coming, people can't get behind youThe artist: This is going to
seem weird but it's something I started thinking about with my own psychology in
terms of how I approach strategy games
The other go onThe artist: I play extremely
defensively, basicallyThe artist: expanding to fill
natural geographic borders on the mapThe artist: holding
thoseThe other: rightThe other: please continue,
this is interestingThe artist: Well,
it's something I
thought of when I was trying to improve my performance tacticallyThe artist: be more mobile,
take more risksThe artist: I'm not sure how to
articulate it wellThe other: just ramble a
bitThe other: I'm sure it'll
make sense eventuallyThe artist: Aye,
maybeThe artist: I'll record this
for the blog, by the way, if you don't mindThe other: not at
allThe artist: But yeah, I tried
to analyse why I thought like that tactically, why defence is always more
important to me than attackThe artist: and I came up with
the idea that it might be something to do with how I'd personally reacted to
being bought up on an islandThe artist: I don't
knowThe artist: It might be a
completely odd train of thoughtThe other: no it's not
oddThe other: just what about
being raised on an island do you think led to that line of
strategy?The other: I'd rather hear
you ramble about this than make extrapolations about your personal
psychology

The artist: Well, as I said, I
think it's that thing of the coastlineThe artist: the knowability,
the idea of that boundary as an edge of knowledge, a limit of safety between the
known and the unknownThe artist: You get what I'm
saying?The other: aye

The other: hmm

The other: the whole
environment being in some way knowable thing

The other: does it apply to
the people, as well?

The artist: Probably

The artist:Although maybe not
as strongly in my case

The artist: I mean, I
definitely feel more comfortable on the island, but I've always had a bit of a
being-an-outsider problem

The other:aye

The other:well you'd be very
visible in any sort of insular community

The other: not you
personally

The other: but
anyone

The other: I'd
expect

The artist:Aye

The artist: I mean, obviously
it depends on how visibly weird I'm being at any time